A conservation group in northern New South Wales wants people to keep their used rapid antigen tests until a recycling solution can be found.
Mullum Cares founder Sasha Mainsbridge said an estimated 50 million plastic testing kits were bound for landfill in Australia over the next few months.
"It absolutely mobilised us to do something when we realised all these hard plastic little cases that are highly recyclable were just going to be wasted and become really problematic in our waste streams," Ms Mainsbridge said.
But people may need to stockpile their used tests safely for some time until a solution can be found.
Bin the biohazard
Scott Captrill, whose company AllMould Plastics has handled a lot of the medical waste generated by the vaccine rollout, said although the kits were made from high-grade recyclable plastic, they were also a biohazard.
"We know of the complications that are tied to RAT tests, being that there are bodily fluids contained within them, it is contaminated waste," Mr Captrill said.
He said the contaminated waste presented challenges in terms of transporting the RATs to approved facilities to be disassembled to separate the various materials within them.
Mr Captrill said recycling of RATs would only go ahead if it was financially and environmentally viable.
"I think everyone is trying to look for new solutions but definitely at the moment anything that is biohazardous or clinical waste goes straight to landfill or to incineration."
Forget about 'wish-cycling'
North East Waste Resource and Recovery education coordinator Linda Tohver said the correct disposal of medical waste was important for the health of the community and workers at waste facilities.
Ms Tohver said rules around the disposal of such waste came under the direction of health authorities and the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
She said people needed to refrain from "wish-cycling" the RAT tests.
She said a RAT in a recycling bin would contaminate the rest of the recyclable items, and the tests were also too small to be handled by council recycling facilities.
Call for suppliers, retailers to take responsibility
Ms Mainsbridge said recycling of the RATs should become an example of "extended producer responsibility resource collection".
"It means the retailers and their suppliers need to really start taking responsibility for the products that they are profiting from."
She said in an ideal world the bins would be serviced, taking the RATs directly to a facility that could remove the internal test strip, crush the plastic and turn it into something useful.
Meanwhile, the group is collecting used RATs at its Resource Recovery Station in Mullumbimby.
She said they were working to lock in partners to assist its pilot program to collect, transport, decontaminate, shred and then mould the hard plastic into something good for the planet.
The ABC has contacted the Federal Minister for the Environment for comment.
